WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - Victoria Churchill: Michigan Election Results

Episode Date: August 10, 2026

Victoria Churchill, U.S. Political Reporter for the Daily Mail, recently covered Michigan's primary election and President Trump’s statements about Democrat U.S. Senate nominee Abdul Al-Sayed. The general election matchup against Republican Mike Rogers is shaping up to be a referendum on the future of the country. Victoria joins WRFH to break down this massive political earthquake and argue this Senate race has completely altered the midterm landscape.

This is Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. I'm Chavon Weed, and joining me today is Victoria Churchill, U.S. political reporter for the Daily Mail, here to talk about her recent coverage of the Michigan election results and what senatorial candidate Abdul Al-Said's victory means for this fall's election. Thank you so much for joining. Thank you so much for having me, Shabon. So great to be on with you.

So for listeners who haven't been following this race super closely, why is it that this, like, Michigan Senate race suddenly has become such a big deal on the, like, national scale? Well, thank you so much for the question. It is definitely an embrace of national importance because currently Republicans have, you know, just a handful of seats that determines their majority in the U.S. Senate, which I cover day to day. So, you know, with the midterm elections coming up, there are, of course, the battleground seats all across the country. We're also looking at, for example, states like Maine, where Republican Susan Collins is trying to hold on to her seat. There's states like North Carolina where Democrats are trying to pick up a seat. And, you know, Michigan is one of these seats where you've had a Democrat senator retire. You've had a Republican nominee in Mike Rogers who, you know, got the Trump endorsement early on. Nobody really challenged him in the primary.

He's been the presumptive nominee. It became the, you know, fully-fledged GOP nominee. So he's kind of been sitting on the sidelines, if you will, while Democrats have been battling it out. You know, we've seen nationally this trend of more progressive candidates picking up, you know, seats that have been held by more moderate Democrats. We've seen this in states like New York City with a couple of their congressional districts. We've seen that in Colorado as well. But, you know, states like Michigan, there's long been this argument that Democrats there as well as states like Minnesota and Wisconsin that are also having, you know, similar clashes among Democrats and their statewide elections, both for governor and for. Senate, that, you know, those states prefer more moderate candidates. And so there was this big fight

in the primary between Haley Stevens, who is a current member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and then Abdul Al-S. Ayed, who has, you know, never held elected government office. He's previously ran for governor in Michigan. And then he's held two appointed positions as the director of health for the city of Detroit, as well as Wayne County. So, you know, he, you know, he, He's been in the public eye in the political realm for a number of feet of years, but he's never actually won, you know, anything with his own name on the ballot. So, you know, this was something that was, you know, he had a lot of progressive backers from D.C. that were out stumping for him, campaigning with him versus Stevens was the more moderate candidate.

And, you know, she, particularly on the issue of Israel, which is huge in national politics, you know, Stevens is supportive of, you know, U.S. supportive Israel versus Abdul al-Assad, who is also a Muslim himself, a son of Egyptian immigrants. You know, he doesn't really like anything that the U.S. government has to do with Israel. So they made that really big issue on the campaign, as well as taking dollars from corporate PACs. You know, this is something that Stevens has done in her house races. So she continued to do that in the Senate race versus El-Said said, you know, he was funded by people, not PACs. that was kind of a big part of his messaging in the primary. Okay, yeah.

I like that you brought up kind of this tension between, yeah, like this Democratic split of like the Moderates Establishment Democratic Party versus these progressives. And Abdul Al-Said would kind of fit into that latter sector of the Democratic Party. Do you think that his victory over Haley Stevens was more of kind of voters wanting the alternative to the Democratic establishment candidate? Or do you think it actually came from like a true embrace? brace of his particular platform and ideology? I think it's a little bit of both.

I think, you know, again, he is not the first of this, you know, of this wave. But he, I think, is definitely not going to be the last. We're seeing, you know, for example, in states like Wisconsin, progressive challengers. So, you know, there does seem to be an appetite for these less moderate candidates in the Democratic Party. but I also think at the same time, you know, most candidates that are tied to D.C. in a certain way are not being successful in their statewide races, which I think is also just part of the national attitude. You know, whether it's Republicans saying, you know, you have a trifecta, you know, between Congress and the White House, you know, both chambers of Congress and the White House, why can't you get any legislation done? There's frustration from Republicans that are tied to D.C. or with the representatives that are tied to D.C. And then, you know, for Democrats, they think that the Trump administration is doing too much and their current representatives in D.C. aren't doing enough to resist him. So, you know, like I said, I think this is something we've seen play out, you know, in Republican races. A couple of members of the House of Representatives have gone back to their home states and run for statewide office and they haven't been very successful. So it really seems to be kind of an all across the board dislike or distrust of what they see going on in Washington, D.C. So I think all those factors at play are. you know, very important for going ahead and going, you know, for this national battle that we're watching. This is Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. Today we have on Victoria Churchill, U.S. political reporter for the Daily Mail,

here to talk about her recent coverage of the Michigan election results. And now in your, in your recent coverage of this kind of whole situation, you described El-Said's primary victory as, like, potentially being this win for Republicans. Can you just kind of walk us through that paradox? Well, yeah, absolutely. So, you know, Republicans, I think particularly in Michigan, have, you know, been Colester Mon Rogers. So they've been kind of biding their time waiting for Al-Sayed to become the nominee. And, you know, I think Republicans in a lot of these states are willing to make the argument

that these Democrats that are winning these more progressive Democrats are, you know, not in line with American values. This is an argument that people like President Trump are making as well. You know, he had a post on true social over the weekend where, you know, he put himself in the First Lady and, you know, a picture of El Sayette and his wife. And, you know, he presented that as two very different visions of America. You know, he was really killed for that. by some people, Al-Sahed himself fought back against that narrative, but also kind of sort of agreed with it.

You know, he was like, well, you know, under Donald Trump, X, Y, Z things are going wrong in the country versus with me and people like, like-minded people, you know, those were going to be issues, was kind of his pushback on that as well. And then how much of, yeah, with Mike Rogers being kind of his opponent, how much do you think the Republican strategy is going to, like, rely on kind of defining El-Syad as this, like kind of extreme progressive rather than actually focusing on Mike Rogers. I mean, I think defining the Democrats and particularly grouping them together, which, you know, I think as these more progressive candidates win over their more

establishment or more moderate counterparts is going to be easier and easier for Republicans to do, you know, national Republican senatorial chairman Tim Scott, he was doing the rounds on national news shows yesterday and he was talking about how, you know, for, um, you know, to kind of present this image of tying people like El Sallayette, even to other candidates that present themselves as more moderate like James Tala Rico in Texas. So Republicans are definitely trying to group all these progressive candidates together. And, you know, I think kind of to their credit, that is an argument that is easier for them to do, particularly because a lot of the times, you know, these more progressive congressional candidates, for example,

will campaign with, you know, even more moderate Democrat statewide. And so unless they're specifically not doing that, it's quite easy for Republicans to make that argument. And, you know, I think this is really something we've seen for the better part of 10 years in the Trump era. It's just this nationalization of politics. You know, Trump himself has said, I think last week in the White House in the Oval Office, he said something like, well, you know, people aren't unhappy with me. they're unhappy with Republicans. And so he's kind of like putting himself on the ballot to try and help out some of these candidates, but also distanced himself from some of them at the same time, which is a little different,

I think, from what he's done before, where he's just, you know, said, you know, if you want Trump, if you want the Trump agenda, back XYZ candidate and XYZ state. This is Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. Today we have on Victoria Churchill, U.S. political reporter for the Daily Mail. Here to talk about her recent coverage of the Michigan election results and what senatorial candidate Abdul Al-Sayad's victory means for this fall's election. And now what do you think it is? Because like this seemed to be a big part of your, or part of your argument about like why Al-Saiad's victory is going to kind of be favorable for the Republicans. Like what do you think it is about

Al-Sayad's politics that's going to make it difficult for him to pull together this broader coalition to be able to have this victory against Rogers? Well, a big part of it is just being more of that progressive voice. So one of the women that leads the Democratic Socialists of America. She's been doing media heads kind of talking about the positions in their platform, which on one hand seem, you know, frankly pretty radical, right? Things like abolish the Senate, you know, completely change the way the presidents are elected and things like that. But also when the socialist leaders, Democratic socialist leaders are asked about their policy positions like, you know, tax the rich. Their answer is just tax the hell out of them. And then when

they're probed on, well, how would you do that? Or what? what would that percent be? They don't really seem to have substantive, I guess, backing, like with numbers and with facts for a lot of their broad-based ideas. And I think this really translates well to El-Sayed because he had like three chants that he was reciting throughout the course of his campaign, you know, one of them not being, not taking money from, you know, corporate donors, like I mentioned before. And, you know, he's also.

had others. But the other things I want to point out with El Sayed, so sorry, that they were get money out of politics, put money in your pocket and Medicare for all. So he just kept reciting those three parts of his campaign message, whether that was in rallies, whether that was in, you know, in ads and things like that, in social media posts. So there's really the consistent messaging. But a lot of the times this, you know, these just seem like very, very, very, very. broad policy points.

And, you know, again, when he's probed and asked about them, he and others like him don't really seem to have very many specifics. And, you know, one thing that I've pointed out, both in my reporting and some of my commentary work as well, is that he seems to be hypocritical on at least a couple of these points. So, you know, on the Medicare for all point, his wife is in the medical field as well, and she doesn't take Medicare patients. He's, you know, also said some not very favorable things about landlords.

but his most recent financial disclosures showed that he has rental properties, not only in Michigan, but also overseas in India and in the Middle East. And so, you know, it really seems like, you know, particularly with a lot of these candidates is that they want these rules for the general public, but not for themselves, right? They say rules for the, but not for me. And that really seems to be the case. I think the more and more people look at not only his rhetoric,

but also his record and just very tangible things that he, he owns and that his family members do. And, you know, even though he does have that no corporate money pledge or that get money out of politics, his biggest donor for a PAC that's aligned with him is also his father-in-law who has contributed, you know, significantly over the, the single-person contribution limit for political campaigns as well. And so, you know, again, all these things, he seems to find a way to weasel around them. This is Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. We have on Victoria Churchill, U.S. political reporter for the Daily Mail,

here to talk about her recent coverage of the Michigan election results. And now I was wondering, like, if you had a read as far as, like, what role did kind of younger voters play in his victory, especially as you can kind of think about, like, what, like, if El-Sayad's win is indicative of, like, his kind of coalition becoming the future of the Democratic Party. Like, do you see younger voters maybe, like, making the future of the Democratic Party? more swinging towards that progressive rather than the moderate establishment

Democratic Party? Absolutely. I mean, you've hit the nail quite squarely on the head where, you know, younger voters are backing these more progressive candidates. And then, on the other hand, you have your more moderate Democrats, your older voters typically backing the more establishment or more moderate candidates. And, you know, again, I think we see this

not only in the electorate, but also in the candidates, a lot of these victories have been generational. So, you know, for example, when you look at this Colorado victory that I mentioned earlier, the candidate that won there, she has been alive as long as her opponent has been in office. And that's a story that we keep seeing time and time again with these more progressive candidates, really making their case. And, you know, of course, I think at least nationwide, the start of this was definitely AOC. and you know she herself was on national TV this weekend she was on ABC this week and she mentioned

you know people like me basically like aren't the fringes anymore or we're not like a rag tag band of revolutionaries was kind of along the phrasing that she used and you know really showing that her you know her segment of the party really has power staying power but also you know is really the future of the party. And then I was wondering kind of like, what do you think voters should be kind of watching for between now and November that will tell us like which way the race is moving? Yeah, I mean, I think it's interesting because so we do our own polling at Daily Mail and we have shown through our own polling that Democrats are up on the generic ballot,

but I've also done reporting that shows that Republicans are raising significantly more money, nationwide. And so I think it's really, for Republicans, they need to go out and make the case, case by case, where, you know, it is Abdul Al-Sead versus Mike Rogers, or it is, you know, somebody like a Ken Paxton who, you know, we've reported on plenty of his own problems

down in Texas versus James Telerico. And so it really is going to come down race by race for the strategy of, what will win. And again, I think for Republicans, the best that they can do is to tie whoever they have to the most radical person that they associate with. So, you know, is it AOC coming out to support El Siyadh? Is it Mamdami holding a rally for somebody in Wisconsin? Those are all things that Republicans are going to try and pin in place and, you know, keep going for Democrats after over and over again. to really tie the Democrat candidates to the most radical wings of their party.

But, you know, I think the Democrats are going to try and make that argument as well, right? Like, given that we do show polling that they are up on the generic ballot, that people do have kind of record levels of dissatisfaction of President Trump, I think mainly due to the Iran war and how long it's gone on. Yeah. That Democrats are going to be making that argument on the other side of, well, we have, you know, a president that. is historically unpopular or he's never had approval ratings. It's low. The Republicans,

despite that, you know, are proving everything that he wants, particularly in the House. Like the Senate has blocked quite a few things. But in the House, you know, Republicans are pretty much voting along with what Trump wants his agenda to be. And so Democrats are going to make that case of, well, you know, gases up. We're at war that's supposed to be over forever ago. You know, we're fighting a war, at least on two fronts, right? Because we've got Middle East. We've got Russia, Ukraine, which Trump has tried time and time again to resolve. You know, he met with Putin early on in his second term. He met was Zelensky at the White House just a few weeks ago for, you know,

when Zelensky was in town for Lindsay Graham's funeral. So, you know, Democrats are saying, you know, this Trump is the ultimate dealmaker and he's not making deals in the second term. So, you know, that's going to be a very valid argument that they're going to take to their voters as well. As you mentioned this idea that, yeah, like people on both sides of these state elections are going to use this strategy of holding up their candidate as the alternative to this radical candidate on the other side of the aisle. What about Mike Rogers' platform makes him a great

opponent to Abdul El-Sayed? I mean, again, I think for Rogers, it's going to be quite an easy argument that, you know, El-Sayed has these radical ideas and he doesn't have a way that he thinks that they're going to accomplish them. But, you know, on the flip side, we are saying that, you know, again, Republicans are going to be having a tough time being tied to Trump for Rogers. That's a little bit less of an issue because he hasn't been in politics for a couple years, even though he has a known entity kind of before his time away from politics. So, you know, it's definitely going to be a really interesting race. And, you know, it was even interesting hearing there's a clip going around of Kamala Harris,

pretty much encouraging Democrats to have elections that are, you know, too big to rig, at basically encouraging turnout and saying that there pretty much should be no doubt on Election Day who wins, whether it's one way or another. And that was actually rhetoric that we heard coming out of the Trump campaign, particularly in 2024, is that, you know, they didn't want weeks and weeks and weeks of ballot counting and nail biters, particularly in these swing states. And, you know, if we think back to 2024, that's what we had. Like some of these swing states were decided very early on in the evening.

And people knew the result of the election, you know, long before they, They went to bed and long before polls closed, really, in some parts of the country, because there was just not enough electoral votes for Democrats to pick up. Well, thank you so much for joining Victoria. Yeah, it was great having you. Thanks for all your insights. Well, thank you so much. I appreciate it.

Always great to chat. Our guest has been Victoria Churchill, reporter for the Daily Mail, sharing about her recent coverage of the Michigan election results. And I'm Chavon Weed on Radio Free Hillsdale, 101.7 FM.